Sent Elsewhere: Pharmacy Conglomerates Hoarding Flu Vaccines

I’m working with a small team of primary care physicians
in Vienna, Va. Part of their strategic business plan is to offer
flu shots to local residents via office visits and house calls. Just
last week, I accompanied Dr. Alan Dappen on a series of flu shot house
calls to the frail elderly. They were too weak to come to the office,
but wanted to be protected from life-threatening flu. I was really
proud to be able to care for them in their own homes and wondered how
many emergency room visits we would avert this season with our strategy.

The answer may be “fewer than I thought” -- but not for the reason I
expected.

As it turns out, a local pharmacy conglomerate has bought up
most of the flu vaccine supply, so that our practice can’t get any
more. Although we have hundreds of patients requesting flu shots, we
just don’t have the goods. And I can tell you that the frail elderly
(who would have benefited from our house calls) won’t go to the
pharmacy to get them. They’ll be at risk for the flu, and will have to
wait until we can get more vaccine -- whenever that happens.

A local pharmacist confessed to one of my peers that their
distributor accidentally sent them 10 times the supply they ordered.
Once they opened the box and discovered the discrepancy, they called
the distributor to return the overstock. The distributor declined to
take it back because the outer packaging seal had been broken.

When our practice asked if we could purchase the extra stock, we
were told that they would not sell it to us at wholesale, but at retail
-- meaning that our thin margin from flu shot administration would
completely evaporate, resulting in us having to give the shots for
free, or not at all.

So, as we brace for one of the worst flu seasons in years, I feel sad
that the frail elderly are getting the short end of the stick. A stick
wielded by big businesses that have the buying power to hoard flu
vaccine, and attempt to make a profit on reselling to the few doctors
left who make house calls.

I’d really love to help my patients avoid the flu this season, but unfortunately their vaccines were sent elsewhere.